Penguins show penny-wise isn't always foolish

Sporting News, The, Dec 28, 1998 by Larry Wigge

Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux are getting treatments in the trainer's room, and surprisingly, most of their attention is on stock-exchange information that is being disseminated on a CNN telecast.

A couple of minutes later, Jagr can be heard chanting from the shower.

"Show me the money," he says. "Show me the money," he repeats, laughing as a teammate tells him to shut up.

That was December 1996, shortly after the phrase was made popular by Jerry Maguire and not too long before Lemieux retired, passing the torch to Jagr in Pittsburgh.

In a sports arena where $100 million salaries are becoming commonplace, hockey teams are proving you don't have to empty your pockets to put a pretty good team on the ice.

Jagr and goaltender Tom Barrasso are the last of the key Penguins from the 1991 and '92 Stanley Cup champions. The rest have retired, been traded or sold off, but Pittsburgh is still contending.

There's one thing that's synonymous with Jagr and the rest of this team-hard work.

"If you have one or two stars, a great support group that doesn't know when to quit and a creative coaching system, you can win in this league, simple as that," Flames winger Theo Fleury says. "The names can change, but in this day of stock options and other perks in contracts, teams are going for the foot soldiers and coaching.

"And based on the way Phoenix, New Jersey, Buffalo, Boston, Pittsburgh and a couple of other teams (those not overpaying for talent) are competing, you can't argue with the logic."

Nor can anyone argue the obvious: Jagr is an impresario on the ice, his talents matched by few. On one play, he makes a dazzling move that freezes the defense, creating a great scoring chance and causing one, two, maybe three players to look silly. The next time he changes speeds, uses those quick hands and cuts back, looking for an opponent the way only he and Wayne Gretzky can.

When Jagr goes wide, most defensemen can't reach him because of his size and strength. He gets separation the same way Michael Jordan does.

"I don't want him to have the puck at all," Bruins coach Pat Bums says. "I don't even want to see him with the puck in the hallway between periods.... I'd rather take my chances with German Titov or Martin Straka or some other no-name player on that team."

The Penguins lost two of their biggest names the past two seasons. Lemieux retired at the end of 1996-97, and Ron Francis left this offseason, signing a lucrative free-agent contract with Carolina.

Yet Jagr, the NHL's answer to Broncos tough-to-bring-down runner Terrell Davis, is challenging for the league scoring lead--with a lineup filled with prospects, never-wases and has-beens.

The Penguins' payroll ranks 21st in the 27-team NHL. What makes this story so intriguing is the team had to trade Petr Nedved to get enough cash to pay the players' salaries December 1. Last week the team borrowed $20 million from a French bank to finish the season.

Jagr openly admits he didn't always buy into second-year coach Kevin Constantine's one-for-all-and-all-for-one system. "I've changed--a lot," he says while blow-drying his long locks. "I was a troublemaker. When I wasn't happy, I'd pout. I was not interested in whatever I did on the ice or whatever the team did.... Now, a lot of youngsters look up to me. I can't be selfish."

Jagr is playing in the second season of a five-year contract and is making $4.99 million. Next season, he makes a quantum leap to $10.36 million.

That could cause the Penguins to unload Jagr's contract next. But we've heard this scary story from Pittsburgh before, haven't we?

A look at the NHL team payrolls shows the Penguins' success isn't singular:

Coyotes. Ranked 18th on the NHL's salary list. They spent big on Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick and a couple of others and have gotten big-time effort from their supporting cast.

Devils. They have managed to keep Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer, convincing them to take salaries lower than those of comparable players in the NHL.

Sabres. Yes, Buffalo goes as Dominik Hasek goes. But 18 other players bust their butts to make this team tough to beat.

Bruins. This is a one-line team with solid goal-tending by Byron Dafoe, Ray Bourque on defense and a great effort by everyone else in every game.

Oilers. Curtis Joseph's free-agent departure might be all that prevents them from scoring a playoff upset similar to last season's over the Avalanche.

The book on ... Tomas Holmstrom

Red Wings, LW 6-0/200

Seven goals in 22 playoff games after he scored five times in 57 regular-season games prove Tomas Holmstrom can be a force.

Stick high, body flailing away in the corners and in front of the net. That's Holmstrom, whether it's in a game or in practice. "He practices the way he plays," says teammate Darren McCarty, "and there are times when I've got to hold back from pummeling him."

And who would have thought a player chosen 257th overall in the 1994 NHL entry draft would command such attention?

The late bloomer (he's 25) from Pieta, Sweden, actually never showed the potential to play in the NHL. That's why he didn't come to North America until 1996. But there was never a question about his tenacity, only his skating and his shot.